Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-01-26
faith, and you will see Christ, and He is all
vou mead tO sea

faith, and you will see Christ, and He is al
| you need to see.
If you can believe nothing else, you Ger
tainly believe in vicarious suffering, for yor
| see it almost every day in some shape. Las
| month the steamship Knickerbecker, of ths
Cromwell Line, running between New Or
leans and here, was in great storms, ane
| The captain and crew saw the schooner
Mary D. Cramer, of Philadelphia, in dis
tress. The weather cold. the waves noun
| tain-high, the first officer of the steamship
aud four men put out ia a lifsboat to save
the crew of the schooner, and reached the
vessel and towed it out Of danger, the wind
shifting SO that the schooner was saved
But the five men of the steamship coming
back; their boat capsized, yet righted agaiu
and came on, the sailors coated with ice
The boat capsized again, aud three times
upset and was righted, and line was
thrown the poor fellows, but their hands
and arms were frozen SO they could not
grasp 1t, and great wave rolled over them,
and they went down never to rise till the
sea gives up its dead. Appreciate that
heroism aud self-sacrifics Of the brave fel.
lows we all can, and can we not appreciate
the Christ who put out in more biting
cold and into more overwhelming surge
ts bring us out of infinite peril into ever
lasting safety? The wave of human hate
rolled over Him from one side, and the
wave of hellish fury rolled over Him on the
other side. Oh, the thickness of the night
and the thunder Of the tempest into which
Christ plunged for our rescue!
Come iu on that one narrow beam, the
beam of the cross. Let all else 90 and cling
to that. Put that under you, and with the
earnestness Of swimmer struggling for his
life put out for shore. There is great
warm fire of welcome already built, and al
ready many who were as far sut as you are
standing in its genial and heavenly glow.
The Angels of Gods rescue are wadipg out
into the surf to clutch your hand. and they
know how exhausted you are, and all the
redeemed prodigals of heaven are on the
beach with new white robes to clothe all
those who come in on broken pieces of the
ship.
My sympathies are for such all the more
because was naturally skeptical, disposed
to question everything about this life and
the next, and was in danger Of being fur
ther out to sea than any of the two hundred
and seventy-six in the Mediterranean break
ers, and l was sometimes the annoyance of
my theological professor because asked
so many Questions. But came in ON a
plank. knew Christ was the Saviour
of sinners, and that was sinner, and l
got ashore, and do not propose to 60 out
on that sea again. l have not for thirty
minutes discussed the controverted points
of theology in thirty years. And during
the rest of my life do not propose to dis
euss them for thirty seconds.
l would rather, in mud-scow, try to
weather the worst cyclone that ever swept
up from the Caribbean than risk my i'm
mortal soul in useless and perileus discus
sious in which some of my brethren in the
ministry are indulging. They remind me
of company of sailors standing on Rams
gate pier-head, from which the life-b boats
are usually launched, and coolly discussing
the different style of oar-locks and how deep
a boat ought to set in the water, while
hurricane is in full blast, and there are
three steamers crowded with passengers
going to pieces in the ofing. An old tar,
the muscles of his face working with nerv-
GUS excitement, cries out: "This is no time
to discuss such things. Man the life boat!
Who will volunteer? Out with her into
the surf! Pull, my lads, pull for the wreck
Ha! ha! Now we have them. Lift them in
boat. Jack, you try to bring them to. Put
these fannels around their hands and fee,
and | will pull for the shore. God help
me! There! Landed! Huzzap' When there
are so many struggling in the waves of sin
and sorrow and wretcheiness, let all else
go but salvation for time and salvation for
ever.
l bethink myself that there are some
here whose opportunity or whose life is a
mere wreck, and they have only small
piece left. You started in youth with all
sails set and everything promised grand
voyage, but you have sailed in the wrong
direction or have foundered on rock.
You have only fragment of time left.
Then come in on that one plank. "Seme
on broken pieces of the ship"
You admit you are all broken up, one de-
cade of your life gone by-two decades,
three decades, four decades, a half century,
perhaps three quarters of a century gone.
The hour hand and the minute hand of
your clock of life are almost pal allied, and
soon it will be twelve and your day ended.
Clear discouraged are you? l admit it is a
sad thing to give all of our lives that are
worth anything to sin and the devil, and
then at last make God present of first
rate corpse But the past you cannot re-
cover. Get on board that old ship you nev-
er will. Have you only one more year left,
one more week, one more day, one more
hour-come in on that. Perhaps, if you
get to heaven God may let you out on some
great mission to some other world where
you can somewhat atone for your lack of
service in this.
From many deathbed I have seen the
hands thrown up in deploration something
like this: "My life has been wasted. had
good mental faculties, and fine social posi-
tien, and great opportunity, but through
wordliness and neglect all has gone to waste
save these few remaining hours. Inow ac
cept of Christ, and shall enter heaven
through His mercy, but alas, alas that
when l might have entered the haven Of
eternal rest with a full cargo, and been
greeted by the waving hands Of a multitude
in whose salvation had borne blessed
part, I must confess now enter the har-
bor of heaven on broken pieces of the shipP'